by huw williams » Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:00 am
I was once doing a pre-breakfast mountain bike ride somewhere in the mountains of Montana. Stopped at the top of a long climb to admire the view of the remaining sunrise when a guy back-packing with his dog came up and started talking about mountain biking in general.
Suddenly the dog, Jake, sat bolt upright and the hairs on his back bristled up. A moment later there was the sound of breaking wood in the undergrowth and Jake started growling and inching forward to the edge of the trail, staring off into the trees.
"Steady Jake" said his owner calming the dog. "Just a bear" said the guy to me "It'll go away when it smells Jake."
"What if Jake took a shower this morning?" I asked
"Well, then we've got this" replied the guy, unsheathing some kind of high powered, repeating rifle, from the case tied to his rucksack, "bears don't have much to say when they hear this baby go 'gackle, gackle, gackle.'
I didn't have much to say either at the prospect of being stuck in the middle of the wilderness with a crazed gunman, his dog, a bear and the only rifle in the world that goes 'gackle, gackle gackle.'
"You ride 'round these parts you should be carrying somep'n." said the man and before I paid my respects and set off at some pace back into town, I promised that I'd visit the local armoury straight after breakfast.
America - what a country.